>> reporter: japan's nuclear crisis is an ocean away, unless you're an albacore tuna, the kind that ends up in cans of tuna fish in the united states. every spring, the torpedo-shaped tuna leaves the waters off japan swimming at speeds up to 50 miles an hour swimming to oregon or washington arriving late summer. before it gets there, it may well have spent time in some of the most radioactive water on earth. >> some of those fish that are feeding there may be picking up some radiation, and we don't want to be harvesting them here in the united states if they do. >> reporter: in seattle this doctor is part of a group of concerned fishermen now urging the government to test the fish when they arrive. already these tiny fish were caught in japan with unsafe levels of iodine-131 and cesium-137 in waters south of the nuclear plant. in the race to cool off the reactors, they're spraying them with water. the fishing industry up and down